eBay has launched “eBay To Go” in beta. Its the first of many new widgets they’ll be debuting. This one let’s you plug auctions into your blog, web site, etc.. Its easy but it isn’t configured to display your listings precisely and therefore no real incentive. However, another site has launched that is just as easy AND you are paid 100% of the resulting commission from any eBay sale…listen in as I tell you where to find it.

Welcome to Endicia as a new sponsor on the show.

A new site where you can type in whatever it is your interested in and see quickly all manner of product pricing data from eBay.

A very interesting article on automatic pricing and re-pricing programs that big retailers use to tailor pricing to your shopping patterns. But there is much more there, including some good advice on how to properly leverage the optimum price from your buyers. Listen in as walk you through the process. Could be that you are leaving money on the table.

A blogger posted a buyer scam whereby the buyer uses legitimate techniques on eBay to freeze the price on your item for much less that you’d like.

A site that sells wall murals from stock images or can create one from your art.

Another site that will take your photo or art work and produce retail quality prints for you to sell over and over.

Do you have a Tuesday Morning outlet nearby? If so, check them out for items to resell on eBay.

While we’re on the subject of retail arbitrage, a company has produced a licensed item using the red hot Soprano’s…but the distribution is limited and that’s where you and eBay come in.

And for all of those who comment on the boards that nothing sells, that everyone ought to pack there bags and go home…I’ve got a tumblin’ little site that offers proof how very wrong the nay-sayers are.

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Links from this week’s show:

Power Press Web Site Marketing Strategy - Write press releases that will drive traffic and buyers to your website or auction. Normally $37.97, you can receive $10 Off ($27.97) by entering “lonelyboy” (omit the ” “) in the Promo Code box.

$100 in Free Advertising on the Yahoo Network - A good opportunity to practice what I preach re learning the ropes of web advertising.

AuctionAds - Auction Ads allows you to monetize your website by displaying live eBay auctions next to your related copy…and get 100% of the eBay affiliate commission from ever sale.

eBay To Go - Same as auction ads except no money in your pocket.

Article on Pricing Software - Ever wonder what they could do with your “cookies”?

Endicia Internet Postage - Endicia Internet Postage lets you print postage for all your mail.
All you need is a PC, an Internet connection, and a laser or inkjet printer. Free 30 day Trial.
Bidding Scam on eBay - A simple little technique that skirts the rules but allows a buyer to freeze your price at a low level.

Wall Mural Manufacturer - Big pictures.

Giclee By The Bay - Using your own photo or artwork, you can have printed fine art giclees and thus be able to sell the same image over and over.

Tuesday Morning - Good source for resalable merchandise.

Soprano’s Soda - Limited distribution means that there will be a good market.

Tumbleweed Farm - You can sell anything if you only have the imagination to do it.

Could it be that the only hope for true competition might be coming from the likes of Jimmy Wales’ Search Wikia? Listen in as I connect a few micro-dots.
Meanwhile, Billy Gates is throwing $50 your way to try Microsoft adCenter; and if you’re smart, you’ll not only use it but you’ll understand why its all about ads from here on out and your little old auction listing is no exception.

Rumor is that eBay is set to acquire Stumbleupon, the popular internet surfing club…so, is it a good thing or not? Maybe yes, maybe no…it all comes down to integration.

Social Media, the warm and fuzzy term de jour, is nevertheless an important means of drawing in some traffic…and it helps to have a concise list of the major players.

Gumiyo is a very cool classified site but that’s not its real importance…where it points to is the next big step in internet search. Question is; is your business ready?

Antiques and collectibles is not as staid a category as you might think. As a matter of fact it is a moving target defined by each generation for some very practical reasons. Listen in as I explain.

And lots more..an internet site to search over 13,000 upcoming auctions....a great site for finding that perfect packaging item…Google hints that paid links could be your one-way ticket to oblivion…and a simply elegant site that gets after selling in a most engaging an imaginative way.

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Links from this week’s show:

Social Media List - Relax, its only 2.0…just imagine what web 10.7 will be like!

Global Auction Guide - 13,000+ “real” auctions at your fingertips.

Kovels Antiques & Price Guide - The grandmother of all price guides.

SKS Bottle - God but I do love a well turned bottle!

SMOBlog on Google’s Paid Link Hit List - When Matt Cutts speaks ( and apart from the blatant link baiting0 you’d damn well better listen.

Wood-Rings Retail Site - Simple, elegant & effective retail design.

Tags: Google, Doubleclick, Search_Wikia, Microsoft_adCenter, Stumbleupon, eBay, Gumiyo

Once again this week, I continue with my password harangue by pointing you to a blog entry where step-by-step you will see how easily passwords are hacked and why odds are that yours is one of them. After you are sufficiently alarmed, why not pay a visit to Microsoft to test your new password’s strength?

Using Google Base Connector is an easy way to get your eBay Store, Yahoo and Amazon Marketplace items listed in Google Base..this you’ve heard before on the show. But did you know that you can also get a premium top of the page search result as well? Listen in as I explain.

Now that eBay is allowing you to earn affiliate commissions on your own items, the next step is a handy little service that will create your ads easily…but you need to know how to title your listings so that you get the maximum benefit.

There’s a site that will happily take your money and guarantee “leads” for your eBay Trading Assistant business...listen in as I explain where these leads are coming from and why you should save your change.

A very good site for zeroing in on local auctions by zip code and category.

Like I say, videos work well for auctions but paying a site to create and host those vids doesn’t. Listen in as I tell you about a site that doesn’t offer a thing, video-wise, that you can do yourself for free.

Amazon debuts ClickRiver. Why not advertise within a relatively secure marketplace and benefit ( at least in your customer’s mind) from the association?

Top 50 Free Web Directories…

An automatic, threadbare auction management service for those of you pinching pennies.

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Links from this weeks show:

Google Base Store Connector - Apart from easily uploading your Amazon, eBay & Yahoo inventory..your listings also can appear at the top of natural search results.

How I’d Hack Your Weak Passwords - Step-by-step how easily its done…with your help.

Microsoft’s Password Strength Checker - Use it.

eBay Affiliate Ad Generation Tool - Quick way to earn decent money on your listings as well as others.

Leads for Sellers - A so-called service that pulls Craigslist listings and then charges you for the “lead”. DIY.

Auction Zip - Spiffy site where you can zero in on live auctions by zip code and category.

Amazon’s ClickRiver - Advertise within Amazon.

Top 50 Free Web Directories -

Auctomatic - Free, nuts and bolts auction management.

Tags: Google_Base, Password_Hack, eBay_Affiliate, auction_manager, Amazon, ClickRiver, Free_Directories

Common wisdom is that once your business reaches a certain size on eBay, you open your e-commerce store and then only use eBay for slow-moving items or for loss leaders to drive traffic to your stand alone store. Trouble is, as with most commonly wise notions, there is a very big exception to this rule. Listen in as I explain how eBay can actually be used to market your store if you know how.

Clipfire is a site where you can use an RSS feed to drive a little traffic…and Rapidfeeds is an easy tool to create specific RSS feeds. But how you use these feeds requires some careful thought; such as including eBay’s affiliate program and Store Referral Credit in conjunction with a Press Release. Sell your item, get 75% off your FVF and make a commission on the sale!

I review two very friendly Shopping Carts, one of whom doesn’t charge a thing until something sells!!

Handmade soap is a tried and true item on eBay…and it sells with varying degrees of success. But, one thing missing in some many seller’s approach is how they market what they’re selling. I found one site that uses a very sharp marketing pitch that positions handmade soap so that it not only engages the customer but also entertains them…a good lesson for everyone.

A wholesale site for Wii, PS, Xbox, etc. accessories.

An independent auction site that shows us how by focusing on a particular niche can breathe life into something as humdrum as, well, another independent auction site.

Magnetic paper supplier for inkjet printers…that’s right, magnetic paper!

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Links from this week’s show:

Power Press Web Site Marketing Strategy - Write press releases that will drive traffic and buyers to your website or auction. Normally $37.97, you can receive $10 Off ($27.97) by entering “lonelyboy” (omit the ” “) in the Promo Code box.

Man Hijacks 90 eBay Accounts - Its your password, stupid!

The Power Seller Report - A wealth of great information and research.

Wordtracker Free Trial - Use it as many times as you want…but USE IT!

RapidFeeds - Create RSS feeds and publish, or, import & manage existing ones. Use in conjunction with a Press Release.

eBay Store Referral Credit - Get back 75% of your Final Value Fees!

Flying Cart - Easy shopping cart that doesn’t charge until an item sells.

Web2.0 Stores - Another easy shopping cart with a more traditional pricing scheme.

Villainess - Sassy soap seller.

Game Asylum - Wholesale video game accessories.

I Do..Now I Don’t Auction Site - Auction site that proves with the right idea, even an auction site can make sense.

Magnetic Paper - If you don’t do something with this, I will!

Tags: Wordtracker, Passwords, Hijack, Shopping_Carts, eBay_Affilate, Video_Games

On my last show, I pointed out that Paypal’s new security device worked well. What it underscores is that in all of the concern for phishing on eBay, it still remains the responsibility of every user to protect themselves as best they can…and one of the easiest, yet most overlooked means of defense is a good, secure password. Listen in as I describe how to make your password virtually unhackable.

HitTail’s blog points out what I’ve been saying about the cost of traffic on-line. You are paying for it, you will pay for it…even if you’re not readily aware of doing so.

A good post on TheStreet.com regarding eBay and Skype.

Haven’t heard much about drop-off stores lately, have we? There’s as site that is run by drop-off store survivors that does a very good job of educating anyone who will listen as to the economic pitfalls of drop store franchising.

Michael Rappa details the basics of doing business on-line with his post on Business Models on the Web.

A good site to begin any business on-line is one where you can search for expiring domains that may just fit perfectly for what you have in mind…the right domain with some history under its belt might just give your business a jump start.

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Links from this week’s show:

Power Press Web Site Marketing Strategy - Write press releases that will drive traffic and buyers to your website or auction. Normally $37.97, you can receive $10 Off ($27.97) by entering “lonelyboy” (omit the ” “) in the Promo Code box.

e-Junkie - The best digital download manager available. Enter code: “SELL101″ for a one month’s free service.

GoDaddy Discount - Get $96 in Free Extras with your domain name from GoDaddy.com. Each domain includes free hosting with a Web site builder, a free Blog, Complete Email and much more. Enter code “pod54″ and get 10% off your order.

eBay Motors Sucks - Don’t let the name put you off…Doc has assembled quite a bit of information and documented it well with screen captures, many of which eBay has deleted.

Auction Count Mayhem - Doc’s page on the wild swings in auction counts that he and others maintain are examples of a wide spread attack on the site.

Doc’s Example of an eBay Phishing Kit - Another example of exactly how attacks are conducted and how easily available the tools are to do so.

HashaPass - Hashapass automatically generates strong passwords from a master password and a parameter.

Google Gadget Password Generator - Similar to HashaPass.

HitTail Article on the Cost of Free Traffic on the Web - Well written article.

Am I The Only One eBay Drop-off Store Franchise Information - A great site to visit before to make the leap.

Business Models on the Web - The 9 business models for the web.

eXpiresoft - Another’s expiring domain may just be your head-start.

Crowd Clout - TrendWatching piece on the power of crowds when it comes to purchasing.

Open Source Code for eBay Listings - By creating eBay listings related to the content using a simple ASP function call you can set up variables and call eBayDisplayItems function to create unique eBay listing choosing the correct keywords and searching category.

Free Directory List - In bound links.

Tags: eBay_scams, phishing, passwords, hacking,

Has there indeed been a profound breach of eBay’s system and could this explain why hijacked accounts appear to have more in common than simply the results of identity theft. Listen in as I explore a problem that eBay can’t seem to shake.
What if anything can you do to prevent your account being stolen on eBay or PayPal? Two weeks ago, I mentioned that PayPal had released a key chain fob that offers what may be, the best bet for keeping ahead of Vladuz and his ilk. Listen in as I explain why I applied for mine and why you should too.
eBay has finally relented and is now allowing you to market your own listing and store items through their affiliate program…easily the best news out of San Jose in quite awhile. Listen in as I explain why and how you can start taking advantage of this immediately.

Do you know what to do if you suspect your account has been hijacked? There are steps and contact information you need to know and fortunately, an eBay member from Australia has detailed it all in an easy step-by-step format.

One of my listeners who happens to be a buyer with a major bricks and mortar retail chain, wrote me this past week chiming in on my discussion of using shipping and handling as a profit center.

Stuck in neutral when it comes to brainstorming a new product or idea to sell on-line? There’s a great article that details 10 unusual ideas that hit it big without spending a lot of cash.

Despite the blizzards, spring is indeed a-comin’..and I’ve found a great direct source for all manner of cedar outdoor furniture that will drop-ship for you.

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Links from this week’s show:

Power Press Web Site Marketing Strategy - Write press releases that will drive traffic and buyers to your website or auction. Normally $37.97, you can receive $10 Off ($27.97) by entering “lonelyboy” (omit the ” “) in the Promo Code box.

e-Junkie - The best digital download manager available. Enter code: “SELL101″ for a one month’s free service.

GoDaddy Discount - Get $96 in Free Extras with your domain name from GoDaddy.com. Each domain includes free hosting with a Web site builder, a free Blog, Complete Email and much more. Enter code “pod54″ and get 10% off your order.

The Red Tape Chronicle’s Report on the eBay Hacker, Vladuz - The good news is, eBay’s vaunted Trust and Safety Department has teamed with the equally respected internet sleuths of the Romanian establishment to track this culprit.

Vladuz’s Firefox Captcha Extension - Do Not Use…after all, like the man says, its merely “a proof of concept”.

PayPal’s Portable Security Key - Get it. Use It.

Information on eBay’s Affiliate Program - Make a little cash sending buyers your way.

How To Report Hijacked Accounts - Thanks to a user in Australia, the right information when you need it. Bookmark this page.

10 Unconventional But Successful On-Line Business Ideas - A Podcast isn’t one of them.

The Best Adirondack Chair - Manufacturer and drop-shipper of cedar outdoor furniture.

Tags: ebay, vladuz, hack, Firefox, captcha, PayPal_Security_Key,

“Selling newer products on eBay ‘didn’t make any sense,’ he said. ‘It watered the experience down’.”

Which taken at face value, would appear to be a repudiation of Express:

“Last year, he rolled out eBay Express, a site for buying new products more efficiently..”

There’s more, much more to the article;reading it is a bit like riding a roller coaster, facing backwards.

Endlessly debated on auction boards is whether or not shipping should or should not be a profit center….listen in as I fuel the fire.

Hittail is an absolutely essential site and service for anyone who has their own website or store; one that allows you to easily see just exactly which terms buyers use to find you.

Brainchild of Seth Godin, Squidoo is a blog wherein blogs publicize themselves…and it can also work as a blog that is simply a blog unto itself. Listen in as I explain the blog equivalent of St. Augustine’s chat with the angel.

Mailum, a simple yet powerful way to create and manage newsletters for your customers.

BlueRectangle will buy your left-over books and pick-up the postage as well. Whether throwing in the towel on book selling on-line or simply off loading a forgettable read; you couldn’t ask for an easier solution.

Refund Please will track those thirty day lower price/money back claims on Amazon and notify you via e-mail when the price has dropped and you are due a refund.

Darmik describes itself as:

…a flexible and powerful content creation and ecommerce enablement platform.

And from then on it really gets hazy. Listen in as I describe how any site, including yours, should state its case clearly and make what it offers easily and quickly accessible.

Think you’ve got what it takes to be a real Powerseller?
I’ve got two words for you: plastic containers.

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Links from this week’s show:

NYT’s Article on eBay’s John Donahoe - Read this interview as eBay’s Jolly Giant explains why new is bad, why Skype is fit for internal consumption and why some day, the engineers and the businesspeople will lie down together.

Hittail - Easy, free, essential tool for any web site.

Power Press Web Site Marketing Strategy - Write press releases that will drive traffic and buyers to your website or auction. Normally $37.97, you can receive $10 Off ($27.97) by entering “lonelyboy” (omit the ” “) in the Promo Code box.

e-Junkie - The best digital download manager available. Enter code: “SELL101″ for a one month’s free service.

GoDaddy Discount - Get $96 in Free Extras with your domain name from GoDaddy.com. Each domain includes free hosting with a Web site builder, a free Blog, Complete Email and much more. Enter code “pod54″ and get 10% off your order.

Squidoo - Seth Godin brainchild for “making sense” of blogs & search and blogging and searching.

Mailum - Easy e-mail newsletters for the rest of us.

BlueRectangle - Sell your books, get cash, free shipping.

Refund Please - The Original on-line price drop tool.

Darmik - A lesson in how not to describe what it is that you are selling.

CPS | Container and Packaging Supply - Sexy little bottles, nifty little tubs…and maybe an idea or two.

Tags: ebay, John_Donahoe, Hittail, Mailum, Refund_Please, Squidoo, Seth_Godin

Meanwhile, CitiGroup meets with eBay officials and comes away with a targeted list of goals that eBay will focus on in ‘07…is it any surprise that “enhancing revenues per listing” will be a key goal?

An Australian economist suggests that selling water on eBay might be a way to bring market forces into play to help control water supply during Australia’s record drought….Marx,Keynes,Samuelson and now Megisian Economics.

According to HitWise, Google Base’s market share of visits has declined by some 18% from last July. Google Checkout’s market share was up over 350%, due to heavy promotion but still has not made any significant inroads into PayPal.

A free web based tool where you can check your web page (or eBay store) for keyword competitiveness vs. the top 10 sites for that keyword or phrase on the internet.

A French site,Zlio, launches its US counterpart where you can choose from a catalogue of thousands of products and arrange your own shop, collecting affiliate fees from the service.

A well designed site that lets you create your own online magazines, fanzines, brochures, catalogs, portfolios and more. Using the formatpixel online editor you can design page based projects, layout text, upload your own images, add interactivity and customize their appearance.

PayPal actually has an on-line forum…shiver me chargebacks!…I never knew! Perhaps a better way to deal with those convoluted PayPal problems.

One of my favorite tools is CCleaner (Crap Cleaner) a freeware system optimization and privacy tool. It removes unused and temporary files from your system - allowing Windows to run faster, more efficiently and giving you more hard disk space. The best part is that it’s fast! (normally taking less that a second to run) and Free.

I examine a missed opportunity for a lovable chocolate Lab (Maggie, pictured above) whose owners touted her lottery picking skills via an eBay auction. Too bad they didn’t take a page from my Power Press Press Release Book and really take advantage of the publicity Maggie so richly deserves.

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Links From this week’s show:

Power Press Web Site Marketing Strategy - Write press releases that will drive traffic and buyers to your website or auction. Normally $37.97, you can receive $10 Off ($27.97) by entering “lonelyboy” (omit the ” “) in the Promo Code box.

e-Junkie - The best digital download manager available. Enter code: “SELL101″ for a one month’s free service.

GoDaddy Discount - Get $96 in Free Extras with your domain name from GoDaddy.com. Each domain includes free hosting with a Web site builder, a free Blog, Complete Email and much more. Enter code “pod54″ and get 10% off your order.

eBay/MySpace Talk Partnership - A million here, a million there…pretty soon we’re talking a real crowd.

CitiGroup Report on eBay’s ‘07 Goals - Revenue Enhancement.

Australian Economist Says Sell Water on eBay - The Perfect Storm?

Google Base and Google Checkout Traffic Analysis - Don’t you just hate it when a monopolist can’t get its act together?

WeBuildPages Keyword Analysis Tool - A free web based tool where you can check your web page (or eBay store) for keyword competitiveness vs. the top 10 sites for that keyword or phrase on the internet.

ZLio - Site where you can easily and quickly set-up an internet store and share in the resulting affiliate commissions from hundreds of internet sites (e.g. Amazon).

formatpixel - Create your own online brochure or featuring your products/descriptions to augment your auction listings.

Official PayPal Forum - Ask questions and share advice with other PayPal Merchants, experts and developers.

CCleaner - Excellent free download for keeping your computer nice and clean.

Maggie’s Personal Lottery Service - A very cute idea that could have used a lot more imagination.

Tags: ebay, myspace, google_base, google_checkout, zlio, formatpixel, paypal,

Forget PayPal, is Microsoft setting itself up to challenge Mastercard/Visa’s credit card monopoly? Maybe so and Bill Gates is proposing micro-steps to do just that.

An fatally attractive conversation on the Vendio board re the sale of a collectible poison bottle, complete with poison, and whether it is permissible and/or ethical to do so.

Overstock.com launches Omuse in Beta…and I for one, am not amused. Does Overstock really need a wiki or social aspect to the site that is not directly tied into selling?

PayPal’s going to give you $15 for purchases over $30 just out of the kindness of their heart…we knew they had the money; a heart however, is news.

WipBox aids creating listings by pulling product specific information automatically from Amazon, among other places…and this simply too easy to do you or your listing any good. Listen as I explain why.

A Craigslist clone that does a fine job of doing nothing new in a remarkably inert sort of way.

“eBay cannot guarantee exact listing durations with respect to availability of keyword or category search.” or in other words: we’ll list your damn auction when we can get around to it.

A site for CD/DVD duplication that can help monetize that e-book idea.

The world’s leader in “Sin Removal Products” has loads of other hip products that would make for some unusual gift baskets…”for Cheaters, Losers and Wrong-Doers”, you know, folks like us.
A wholesale hat site…I can’t think of anything clever to say other than its cool.

Does a site that produces items:”created by carefully injecting and trapping multi-million volt regions of electrical charge deep inside acrylic using a particle accelerator…” sound like something you’d like to sell? Sure does to me! And just try finding this in one of those drop-shipping guides.

Computer and electronic wholesalers and an auction and information site for Legos that is quite an eye opener.

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Links from this week’s show:

Power Press Web Site Marketing Strategy - Write press releases that will drive traffic and buyers to your website or auction. Normally $37.97, you can receive $10 Off ($27.97) by entering “lonelyboy” (omit the ” “) in the Promo Code box.

e-Junkie - The best digital download manager available. Enter code: “SELL101″ for a one month’s free service.

GoDaddy Discount - Get $96 in Free Extras with your domain name from GoDaddy.com. Each domain includes free hosting with a Web site builder, a free Blog, Complete Email and much more. Enter code “pod54″ and get 10% off your order.

Windows Live - Microsoft’s Basket ‘o Betas for practically every internet chore.

Windows Live Expo - a dynamic social listing service where you can buy and sell merchandise, discover local events, find a new career, and meet local people - all for free. Nicely done.

Overstock.com’s Omuse - A social wiki beta service desperately in search of a reason for its existence.

ProActionMedia - CD/DVD duplication service.

PayPal $15 Offer - Make a PayPal payment over $30 and Meg will credit you $15 cash. Limited time.

BlueQ - Manufacturers of life improving, joy bringing, mind altering, universally praised products since 1988.

Stoneridge Engineering - A million volts worth of interesting acryllic product.

Village Hat Shop - Whole lotta wholesale hats.

RS-Kit - The Internet’s largest online database of computer wholesale distributors.

BrickLink - A premium venue for individuals and businesses from all around the world to buy and sell new, used and vintage LEGO® through fixed price and auction services.

Tags: ebay, paypal, windows_expo, computer_wholesale, legos, blueq,

Meanwhile, eBay has clamped down on auction extensions and automatic auction extenders, banning them from the site. However, extensions are still permitted for fixed price and store listings..if you’re not already using extensions to increase your listings visibility, you should be.

Craigslist has been a very popular topic in the past on the show. However, its a different kettle of fish than eBay and researching the Craigslist marketplace is an important first-step to selling there. Listen in as I go over several tools that will make that task easier, including one that you can use to generate an anonymous phone number for customer contact that is useful on eBay as well.

An new blog that will review your eBay store and perhaps be a source of future traffic for you.

A great site for doing all of your keyword searching in one place. Use it to find how and where (and how much the word or phrase will cost in Adwords or on Yahoo) on practically every significant site on the web.

Transactional e-mails are more than just the humdrum after the sale. They represent an excellent marketing opportunity…that is, if you know what to offer.

Could you and several of your friends use some of the hottest on-line bargain shopping communities to drive traffic to your sites? Its doable if you’re smart.

Jewelry photography is one of the trickiest pics you are liable to take when selling. I’ve found a very good site that spells it out for you. Also, these tips are applicable for anyone trying to photograph any reflective surface.

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Links from this week’s show: